T.R. Hamzah & Yeang: Ecology of the Sky & Groundscrapers + Subscrapers of Hamzah & Yeang. . - Ecological Progress - two books by Ivor Richards - book review

Architectural Review, The, June, 2002 by Chris Abel

By Ivor Richards. Mulgrave, Australia: The Images Publishing Group. 2001. [pounds sterling]39.50

GROUNDSCRAPERS SUBSCRAPERS OF HAMZAH & YEANG

By Ivor Richards. Chichester: Wiley-Academy. 2001. [pounds sterling]34.95

These two very different but complementary books are the latest in what is becoming a torrent of publications on the work of this ambitious Malaysian firm, almost as prolific as the work itself. A future RIBA Gold Medal winner if ever there was one, in barely two decades Ken Yeang has grown from a promising young Asian designer to a major player on the world stage, with projects in Europe and the Middle East as well as the Far East - still a very rare feat for a non-Western architect.

These two books are both written by Ivor Richards, but Yeang's personal stamp is clearly evident in the unorthodox graphics and presentational style. The larger and more impressive of the two books, Ecology of the Sky, covers the most familiar ground of the two and deals exclusively with Yeang's generic concept of the 'bio-climatic skyscraper'. Ranging from the earliest, relatively conventional-looking towers in Kuala Lumpur to the more recent and exotic, free form creations in Singapore, Mecca, Frankfurt, London and elsewhere, each project is presented in lavish detail. The tasty visuals and project descriptions, which are all written by Richards, are also backed up by copious graphs, diagrams and factual information in the manner of an encyclopedia, charting Yeang's increasingly rigorous, research-based approach. The contents far exceed what is normally expected in architectural monographs and easily surpass previous books on Yeang's related work - a must buy for both old and new fans.

The other book, Groundscrapers Subscrapers, was purposefully produced as a corrective to the widespread impression that Yeang's firm only designs towers, and covers the less well known but equally innovative work of medium-rise, low-rise and semi-underground projects. Like the high-rise designs, these projects, which include a wide range of building types and locations, are all governed by the same concerns for low-energy or sustainable design. Presentation-wise, however, the book compares unfavourably with the former. What may once have worked well for Archigram's pamphlets works less well for a full-size book and the overwrought graphics and jazzed-up layout severely reduce legibility. This is irritating, because it gets in the way of understanding what is othenwise clearly an important body of work. The editing could also have been tighter: there are too many grammatical errors for comfort. Best to start with Yeang's own introduction and then fight your way through the rest.

What is most disappointing however, are the omissions in the texts of both books which might have told us more about the genesis of Yeang's architecture. Richards has been covering Yeang's career for many years and knows the work as well as anyone; his descriptions of each project are well informed and thorough. In his introduction to Ecology of the Sky he a]so plots Yeang's progress from designing for climate to a broader conception of ecological design, involving the full range of interconnections between a building and its natural and built environment. However, these points are mostly made through frequent quotations from Yeang's own earlier writings, to which Richards himself adds very little. Hardly anything is said about other influences, whether cultural or professional. Only passing mention is made of the usual suspects, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bucky Fuller, etc, while nothing at all is said about how Yeang's interpretation of ecological design fits in with other related movements.

We are thus left to ponder the vast gulf between Yeang's own abstract diagrams of interconnectedness, such as his 'partitioned matrix', and the undeniable richness of the work itself. Why, for example, if climate and ecology are everything, do Yeang's recent projects have such an obvious formal resemblance to each other, whichever climate or part of the world they are built in? Like it or not, there is such a thing as a Ken Yeang style almost as much as there is a Frank Gehry, style, and it's as apparent in the look of these two books as in the architecture. We need to know more.